Teadonism

Year: 2001, Spring

Producer: Meng Hai Tea Factory

Region: Meng Hai Tea Mountain

Vendor: Jing Teashop

Leaf: Dry–dark, tightly compressed, small and broken, a few twigs  Wet–shiny, lighter, many small pieces, some twigs.

Scent: Dry scent–not as “fishy” or “pondy” as the other (lower-quality) shu puerhs I’ve had access to, which is nice.  Wet scent–wet leaves smell very pondy with undertones of horse…clean horse.  That probably sounds very strange, but it’s what it reminds me of.

Liquour–Smells loamy, some sweetness.  Colour is dark reddish brown but translucent, and moves from very dark and almost “oily” looking to a rosier, orangier sepia tone as infusions progress, staying a very handsome chestnut for most of the infusions.

Infusion Parameters: 5 grams in a 4oz (120mL) gaiwan, boiling water, one 20s rinse followed by brief rest, 20s, 20s, 10s, 20s, 35s, 45s, 1min, 1min

Tasting Notes:

Infusion 1:  20s Smooth!  With a lot of depth…lots of loam/soil/pond on the top, but not unpleasantly so.  A tiny bit of dry afterbite, some new, raw wood taste.

Infusion 2: 20s Smoother yet.  Brighter, too, with less of the afterbite, and leather replacing the wood taste.

Infusion 3: 10s Flash infusion for curiosity’s sake–less depth but not in a bad way, otherwise same as above.  Would keep it at 20s in the future.

Infusion 4: 20s Much as above–the flavour is thinner but again, not in a bad way.  Very smooth, the leather is gone, but I’m having a hard time describing what the leather gave way to.  As close as I can figure, I’m now tasting the “ethos” of shu puerh.  I’ve never tasted anything else quite like it, so this leads me to believe that it is simply the puerh, the leaf, itself.  Yum.

Infusion 5: 35s As above but getting still “thinner” in flavour.

Infusion 6: 45s Lighter, with a delicate presence over the leaf that I can only call “musk”–light, slightly animal musk, but very attractive.

Infusion 7: 1min A sort of dark sweetness is coming through, and it’s really fabulous.  It even smells sweeter, and all the musk is gone.

Infusion 8: 1min I was intrigued by that sweetness despite the “thin” nature of the last infusion, so I tried one more minute and was rewarded by yet more sweetness.  This stuff is starting to taste almost delicate!  There’s no depth left at all, though, so it’s off to the thermos overnight for these leaves.

Overall notes”

In retrospect, if I would’ve given this tea 2 rinses as I’ve heard recommended sometimes for shu, it would’ve been perfect from the get-go.  As it was, I was feeling a little uncertain about how much I liked the first infusion, but the flavours I considered undesirable were gone by the second infusion, and I enjoyed it very much overall.  Somewhere halfway through I realized that this stuff just felt *good* going down, and I felt warm and alert, but relaxed and a trifle dizzy.  This is unexpectedly heady stuff, and I found myself fondly wishing that it could be got anywhere, brewed well, so that I could have it in place of coffee during breakfast at, say, IHOP.  In short, I just really enjoyed it.

I was also a little surprised by the time it took to do the tasting–about an hour and fifteen minutes from setup to knockdown.  It was very fun, though, and I know I’ll be thankful for these more detailed notes as I learn more about puerh.